I am wondering if there are any different cameras besides the cgo + that will mount on the TH. Specifically, I want a thermal camera. The cgo-ET is one possibility, right, but not sure if it will do a retrofit? Any others? Maybe from another Yuneec line?
Alternate cameras for the Typhoon H
- Thread starter moodman
- Start date
You can also mount the CGO3 if it is the version with the contact plate. But doing this is only useful if you damaged your cgo3+. Mounting the CGO-ET is not a problem at all. Just plug it in and change the setting on the ST16 and you are ready to go. Besides that, there are not cameras available. The Cameras used on the H Plus and H520 will not work.
The CGO-ET comes in versions for the H and the 520, so make sure you're getting the one for the H. I got mine from VertigoDrones.com. At $1900 it's not cheap, but it's one of the least expensive thermal cameras for a drone out there, and it happens to work on a Typhoon H.
It's also a very low-resolution thermal image, 160X120, and it only gets 6 frames per second. It's not going to do everything that every engineer needs to see, but with more capable thermal cameras costing a couple or several times as much, it's an easy entry into thermal imaging with drones.
Without an app to get the temperatures out of the images, it's OK for comparing things, as in one a/c unit on a roof is hotter or colder than others, but it's only the color palette that indicates the temperature with no way to touch a spot and get a direct temperature reading like with a FLIR.
With mine, it can fly at 200' and look down through trees at night in a wooded area with trails and pick out dogs and their walkers. Or, scanning the woods across two soccer fields, can pick out runners coming out of the woods. A park manager told me there were several barred owls at the end of the parking lot and the camera picked them up from maybe 150 feet away.
The 'low light' camera for visual surprised me. It gets pretty good color until past sunset, and in the pitch dark with a pair of LumeCubes, it gets a whole soccer field with the drone flying at 100 feet or so.
I don't think this rig is suitable for all SAR or inspection work, but I'll be putting some of the video into my portfolio and see what interest it gets. I'm not ready to spring for a Mavic 2 Dual or Inspire 2 with a thermal sensor yet but would if I can get that kind of work.
The CGO-ET outputs an mp4 with two tracks, and Windows users have a tortured path to get the images separated from the mp4 and put back together so the thermal overlays the visual. Posts on this forum got me to MKVToolNix to split out the images into separate MKV files, then VLC Media Player to convert each back to single-track mp4. Then Camtasia works to overlay a semi-opaque thermal image over the visual.
Mac users might have an easier workflow?
I'm new to drones and thermal sensors, was a long-time commercial pilot retreading into drones as I retire, and post this hoping to learn something from somebody who knows more...
Thank you for the detailed info. I think the ET is overpriced for what it does. Actually I think all thermal cameras are overpriced. The novelty of them and the few people who use them means economy of scale - for now - won't be bringing the price down. But the tech behind them is well known and has been around a long time. Perhaps in time prices will come down and then I can justify buying one for myself!
We used thermal cameras at work for machine analysis 30 years ago. So you are right about the tech being there for a long time.
There needs to be an incentive put forth to lower the price of calibrated thermal cameras so their use in SAR, fire fighting, home and commercial building energy assessment, and so on can be done without breaking the bank.
Not on a Typhoon H. Some drones have a gimbal that will loft and control a compatible camera, like a FLIR or DSLR, pan/tilt, and stream video/thermal imagery to the controller. But, I haven't seen anything like that for a Typhoon H.
I guess you could strap most any camera or monocular to the drone but it wouldn't be something I'd want to use...
PatR
Premium Pilot
Something to note, lenses don’t create or capture pixels, they capture and focus light which is captured by the camera sensor which then converts the light image to pixels.
Lenses are graded by size in mm, aperture range, and light transmissivity. The last two are more commonly referenced as “speed”. However, the introduction of digital cameras and megapixel storage created a bit of a problem in describing image sharpness so a system was derived to compare lens sharpness performance against a “perfect” lens. Read the linked article for a more comprehensive description.
petapixel.com
Lenses are graded by size in mm, aperture range, and light transmissivity. The last two are more commonly referenced as “speed”. However, the introduction of digital cameras and megapixel storage created a bit of a problem in describing image sharpness so a system was derived to compare lens sharpness performance against a “perfect” lens. Read the linked article for a more comprehensive description.
Perceptual Megapixel: Lens Sharpness Boiled Down to a Single Number
Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) charts are a very commonly used tool in the photo industry for measuring and describing how sharp a particular lens is.
petapixel.com
